


More than the sum of our parts

by StarberryCupcake



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bilingual, Character Analysis, Fluff and Angst, Gen, International Fanworks Day 2016, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, it will be posted in english and spanish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 14:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6009829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarberryCupcake/pseuds/StarberryCupcake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose reflects about the future she won't get to see and the things she would like to share with her son. And then, she shares them with him. Set in the time-frame of the "For Steven" video.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More than the sum of our parts

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Más que la suma de nuestras partes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6009571) by [StarberryCupcake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarberryCupcake/pseuds/StarberryCupcake). 



> The name of this fic is a quote of Mary Lambert's amazing song [Sum Of Our Parts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVb7KmyuwaE), which I totally recommend listening while reading, if you want. Written for International Fanworks Day and Valentine's Day, because love isn't just romantic and a mother's love can be incredibly powerful.

I close my eyes and feel the wind caressing my hair. It plays, like a rowdy kid, not caring at all about disorder or chaos. I smile and my imagination turns the wind into two little hands, sinking in my hair, asking me to play with him. I listen how the sea breeze moves the sand beneath my body and imagine, instead, two small feet, reaching for me and asking for a hug. The constant music of the sea waves transforms into laughter, one that is so much like mine, so much it’s contagious and takes laughter out of me too, without my permission.

I see him without having to open my eyes, as clear as the fragments of sunshine that slip through my closed lashes. He’s running towards me, calling me with shapeless words he still can’t pronounce, searching for me and finding me always, wherever I go. He looks so much like him, and I love him so much for it. He has, like him, a winged soul which - even if he carries a rock heart like I do - will teach him how to fly.

And there is so much I want to tell him. They will tell him who we are, who we were and why we fight. I know that, when the time comes, they will do what’s best for him, they will love him as much as I do, because he – another being made of love – will make it _so_ easy for them. But I would like to be able to tell him what _I_ learned. What the world he’s being born into did for me, the life it gave to me. How wonderful it is to see the sky infinitely caressing the sea and not knowing what there is beyond it, which things await us, what the universe has planned for tomorrow. To make your own path, your own story, your identity. _To be your own universe_.  I wish I could explain to him the freedom of being oneself, the magic that’s created when one loves.

I know I won’t be able to tell him, but I also understand that he will discover it for himself. Because they will love him so much he will grow free. And, when the time comes, that freedom will save us all.

I place my hand in the warm nest that my swollen belly has become. I feel his heartbeat and the imaginary kid who played with my hair starts fading away, as the real one becomes more and more present. He notifies his presence with a little kick, I feel it in my hand, and the imaginary kid disappears completely when I open my eyes.  

Someday, he’ll run through these beaches with his tiny feet and play with his hands like the wind, but it won’t be with me. I feel he becomes uneasy, noticing my grief, and a tear falls down my cheek, one I don’t dare showing to anyone other than this little kid. I know that, if I showed them my sorrow, they would believe I regret my choice, and that is absolutely not true at all. Not when that choice will give this kid the whole world for him to play in and be free like the wind that crowds around us.

However, I would like to share it with him, at least once. I imagine him sitting beside me, having grown up a bit more, trying to do what’s best for everyone, unknowing he already is, just by being himself.

I take the camera that’s sitting beside me, turn it on and focus the sea, the birds and his father.

“Isn’t it remarkable, Steven?” I ask, to that brave and happy young boy sitting beside me, filled with doubts and fear, love and courage “This world is full of so many possibilities…”

**Author's Note:**

> I've wanted to write something for the Steven Universe fandom for a long, long time, but didn't have the courage. I had this little piece in my mind for a while and thought it was perfect for today, because I could also translate it (I originally wrote it in my native language, Spanish, and also posted it here). I think the mother-son relationship between Rose and Steven is narratively very interesting, especially the way it's so realistically depicted in the show, where Steven doesn't idealize Rose but discovers more about her bit by bit, yet also feels his identity in question because of how everybody sees him as Rose and has expectations put upon him for that reason. Anyway, thank you for reading and happy international fanworks day and valentine's day!


End file.
